Inside a cavernous office space on Cherokee Street in south St. Louis, Bruce Franks’ die-hard supporters are prepping to go door-to-door for a candidate that’s captured the attention of St. Louis’ political community.

These volunteers are getting pointers on how to hand out door-hangers and convince 78th District residents that Franks is the one to represent them in the Missouri House over incumbent state Rep. Penny Hubbard.

On the surface, the stakes seem low: The winner, assuming they can defeat Republican Erik Shelquist in November, gets a seat in a Missouri House that Republicans dominate.

Developer Paul McKee is finally using the Tax Increment Financing approved years ago by the city of St. Louis.

The Board of Aldermen approved a bill on Friday to release $2.8 million in TIF for infrastructure around a proposed grocery store and gas station McKee announced in March. It’s the first time McKee has sought to use any of the $390 million TIF first approved in 2009 for his massive Northside Regeneration project.

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved a measure Friday to take a $20 million loan in order to buy land within the proposed site for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The loan will use one--- possibly two---city buildings as collateral. The measure passed with a vote of 18-9 with one abstention.

The NGA, however, will not choose among four possible locations in the St. Louis region until next year.

The Bank of Washington has loaned developer Paul McKee at least $34 million for his Northside Regeneration project, and possibly as much as $62 million.

The series of 17 loans from the Washington, Mo., bank was made to several of McKee’s holding companies and to Northside Regeneration between 2006 and 2012. The bank, by its own calculations, now holds more than 1,500 parcels as collateral, or about 78 percent of Northside Regeneration’s real estate in St. Louis.

Several of Paul McKee’s properties within the proposed footprint of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency were sold at auction on Tuesday.

The company that put the 46 parcels on the auction block - Titan Fish Two - had the winning bid of $3.2 million. It’s the same company that filed suit against McKee’s Northside Regeneration in April, claiming it’s owed more than $17 million over defaulted loans.

The city of St. Louis wants the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to relocate to the north side of the city. In order to make it a viable option, the city is hustling to buy all 100 acres in the proposed footprint just north of the former Pruitt-Igoe housing project site.

Yet more than half of the property is owned by developer Paul McKee’s Northside Regeneration, which received significant state tax subsidization to acquire the land.

St. Louis Public Radio reported in April that McKee's company, Northside Regeneration, had failed to pay more than $750,000 in real estate property taxes for 2013 and 2014. The company owns more than 2,000 parcels on the city's north side.

Two auctions were held Monday in connection with developer Paul McKee’s McEagle Properties, LLC.

In the first auction, held by Triad Bank, McKee appeared to pay off McEagle’s remaining debt to the bank. A company connected to McKee paid Triad $748,000 for McEagle’s assets.

"We are pleased to announce that M Property Services, LLC was the successful bidder for substantially all the assets of McEagle Properties, LLC," said McKee spokesman Jim Gradl in an emailed statement. "M Property Services, LLC is a new entity affiliated with the McKee family."

But in previously reported but somewhat forgotten news, McKee and his company, Hazelwood Logistics Center, LLC, were ordered to pay a bank $32 million in a federal judgment back in 2011. So far, just a small fraction has been paid.

The company with ambitions to bring St. Louis' north side back to life is responding to a lawsuit filed Monday in St. Louis County that alleges Northside Regeneration defaulted on loans and owes more than $17 million.

Paul McKee's company released a statement Friday that said the suit, filed by Titan Fish Two LLC, was meant to "embarrass" Northside.

Developer Paul McKee owns more than 1,500 acres on the north side of St. Louis, but for the last two years he has not paid property taxes on nearly any of it.

In examining real estate property taxes, St. Louis Public Radio discovered McKee’s company, Northside Regeneration LLC, owes the city more than $750,000 in taxes for 2013 and 2014. That total includes nearly $120,000 in interest and penalties.

The city of St. Louis expects to start making offers in early May on the properties within the proposed site for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

That includes land owned by developer Paul McKee, who owns more than half of the parcels in the 100-acre area.

Until now, it had been unclear whether the city or McKee would sell the land to the federal government should the intelligence agency choose the north city site. McKee owns more than 350 parcels within the site just north of Pruitt-Igoe.

Updated at 5:00 p.m. with further information about planning partners and neighborhood boundaries.

The neighborhood centered around an 1,800-unit assisted housing project just north of downtown St. Louis will be the focus of a $500,000 planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Friday.

The Missouri Department of Health's Facilities Review Committee granted a certificate of need for a three-bed urgent care hospital that's part of developer Paul McKee's master plan for the overall project. No one spoke in opposition to granting McKee a certificate of need during the committee's meeting, and the vote in favor was 7-0.

That was the idea behind a visit to St. Louis by a group of Detroit community development professionals this week.

The Detroit Revitalization Fellows met with representatives from Preservation Research St. Louis, Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation, Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, Northside Regeneration and Cortex.

A new urgent care hospital is planned within the Northside Regeneration project in north St. Louis.

Developer Paul McKee will announce plans Wednesday for the first big project within the 1,500-acre footprint of the redevelopment zone. Mayor Francis Slay, state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed and state Rep. Penny Hubbard are expected to attend.

Although nothing official has been released, people close to the project say the facility will likely be about 16,000 square feet.

Developer Paul McKee has two weeks to reimburse the city of St. Louis for legal fees associated with his Northside Regeneration project.

The city’s Board of Estimate and Apportionment voted Wednesday to give McKee until April 30 to pay approximately $57,000 in legal fees. That money is associated with a roughly three-year legal battle over McKee's proposal to redevelop portions of north St. Louis.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Without any debate, the Board of Aldermen gave its final blessing, by a vote of 21-3, to legislation kick-starting tax increment financing for developer Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration project.

It’s a move that finally ends a legislative process that began exactly four years ago -- in October 2009 -- when the board approved bills for the first two phases of the redevelopment plan.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: The St. Louis Board of Aldermen has given initial approval to two bills giving tax increment financing to Paul McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration project. Both bills need another vote to go to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay’s desk.

Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed presides over the debate over tax increment financing for the NorthSide Regeneration project. Reed voted for Tammika Hubbard's bills, which need a final vote before they go to Mayor Francis Slay's desk.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Dear Beaconites –

Watching developments this week, it seemed that Paul McKee's NorthSide Regeneration project passed over some invisible continental divide in support and is now on the downhill slope toward actually happening.